Sometimes the fantasy of entering an all-in grind mode can be alluring.
It’s promise of progress towards a desire of our choosing - whether it be a new business, extra income or any of our other endless goals - can seem a price worth paying to get ahead.
For it’s only asking us for a small sacrifice…
If we just subtract our socialising, let go of our loved ones and focus on ourselves we’ll have all the time in the world we’ll ever need… Right?
In my experience, that’s not exactly how it works.
Let me explain…
Sometimes a Sprint is Necessary
There are periods in life when a sprint is required.
Often it flows from a fixed deadline of work that you can’t change (ie. exams) or a hard number that won’t go away (ie. paying yourself this month).
In these cases, if managed well, we find ourselves rising to the challenges ahead and solving problems in a fraction of the time we used to.
For me, the memory that is scarred on the inside of my skull is the last 4 months of school, where I went all-in on my A Levels.
The date was March 2016 and I had 10 exams scheduled in the diary alongside some pretty epic pieces of coursework. I was fresh off ACC in my AS Levels the year before and I was motivated to prove I could do better.
So, for the first time I applied my growing confidence from my results in running and committed to a 78 hour work-week for 4 months.
I was in from 8am until 10pm Monday through Saturday and 10am until 4pm on Sunday, doing everything I could to turn my results around. My work was my life and I gave myself completely to it.
Since then I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever worked harder. Not in training for an Ironman, starting two businesses or scrambling to cover my income at the end of a month have I put as much effort in as I did then.
And I’m truly glad I did.
Because by the time results day came around I couldn’t be happier.
I’d received A*AA, was accepted into my first choice University and had shown to myself that with enough hard work anything was possible.
It was a defining moment in my life that empowered me to always bet on myself to prevail in difficult times. Which is something I’ve only continued to build on in the seven years since.
So now, whenever the going gets tough, I look back at my final year of school and think to myself “this could really be a lot worse”.
Other times a Marathon is Better
However, more isn’t always better.
Some activities require us to think long-term.
They follow a “little and often” mantra that forces us to approach them with a patience we’d never give to the tasks we know we can sprint through.
Usually this is because compressing our progress into intensity in this area will lead to depreciating or even negative returns.
A classic example for me is the art and science of endurance training. I know that with too little exercise I won’t improve. And that with too much I’ll risk injury. So, finding that sustainable sweet spot is key.
But, once I do I can mostly switch off the thinking.
I get out of bed. Put my trainers on. Head out for a run. Come back nice and sweaty. Shower. Repeat. Time and again until the results show themselves.
Over the years I’ve learnt to apply this ‘marathon thinking’ to other areas of my life and am already starting to see compounding results:
Min. 15 books read a year since 2019 = 98 books read in 4 years.
Min. 1 newsletter a week here since Mar 2022 = 668 subscribers.
Min. 1 post a week on LinkedIn since Jan 2017 = 10,000+ followers.
Which is pretty awesome indeed. But, the best part?
These activities feel effortless. They are so deeply ingrained in my routine that procrastination ceases to ever be a problem.
Meaning I will doing them week-on-week for years on end.
And over time, once the effort continues to compound together, I trust that the results will speak for themselves.
Summary
Life isn’t either a marathon or a sprint. It’s both at the same time. With some projects requiring our immediate and urgent focus and others are happy to chug away in the background.
In my experience managing a lot of life areas, I’ve found it’s best to sprint the start and the finish. And to marathon train the middle. Getting going requires a lot more intentional effort to embed new habits, while finishing takes up a lot more headspace overthinking the final deadline. The middle, on the other hand, no matter how long or short it is, is won by the behaviours you repeat day after day. Which is where any success of ours is truly won.
Life will of course always be in flux. And you’ll need both the marathon AND the sprint. However, to avoid overwhelm, it's pretty important to never attempt to start or finish too many initiatives at once. Instead, focus on turning your current sprints into marathons before casting your eyes to the next shiny object awaiting your attention.